Step By Step
by TheFirstWaltz
Summary: Yuki and Tohru are married and expecting. Everything should go perfectly, right? So long as they follow the steps... Yukiru, as always, and despite the ominous summary, contains fluff. Or as fluffiest as I can manage. Side Kyo x Uo, nothing major as to put people off.
1. Step One

**A reader requested fluff, so fluff I shall give. I'm not as good at fluff as I am dark, so please forgive the rich cheesy coating if you taste one. Think of this as a collection of pregnancy (spoiler!) fluff stories rather than one big plot.**

**I do not own Fruits Basket.**

**Step By Step**

Yuki Sohma still couldn't believe his great fortune of waking up next to Tohru Honda every morning, even if it was while kneeling next to her in front of the toilet, holding her hair back while she threw up. Supposedly the morning sickness would go away in the later months, but he was beginning to have his doubts. Something this unpleasant couldn't simply _vanish_. Unpleasant things took a long time to subside, especially when they were going to result in wonderful things. Then again, Tohru had always been good at making unpleasant things wonderful in a very short period of time.

On the seventeenth morning, after Tohru had sat back on her heels and smiled to let Yuki know that the nausea had passed, he said, "We need to make a list."

Tohru looked away from his worried face and pressed her hand to her still flat stomach. She did it every morning after she threw up. Yuki wasn't sure if she was making sure the morning sickness was truly gone or if she was trying to feel some sort of movement from inside of her that would reward her for his discomfort. It was too early for the baby to be moving enough for her to feel – all the books from the library had said so – but Tohru was always hoping. Her hand slipped off of her stomach and onto her knee. Yuki put his hand on top of hers. In a small voice, she said, "Already?"

"You're encouraging me to procrastinate?" He asked.

She reacted to his teasing the same way she always had since high school. Her face bloomed pink and her eyes widened as she tried to rectify what she thought was her mistake. "No!" She exclaimed, shifting so she was facing Yuki more than the toilet, "Not at all! I just meant that it's so early, and so much can go wrong –"

She clapped her mouth shut and literally swallowed back whatever she meant to say next. Yuki's smile faded, and he squeezed her hand under his on her knee. "That's why I want to make a list." He said.

**Step One: Picking A Doctor**

Tohru took the squalling kettle off of the burner and said, "Hatori-san, of course."

Yuki looked up from the barely-touched notepad and set his pencil down like he was arming a bomb. Kyo – who had not taken much time before giving a glowing Uotoni Arisa a set of very loud fraternal twins – had often followed his pregnant wife to Tohru and Yuki's house, where the couple would promptly resume their fight by each sequestering a host and filling them in on their respective sides of the argument. And since Arisa, with her swollen stomach and burning eyes, always snagged Tohru first, Kyo and Yuki were left to their own devices. Kyo spent much of the time describing what it was like to live with a pregnant woman. As far as Yuki knew, disagreeing with a pregnant woman _was_ like arming a bomb.

He stood up and automatically fetched the mugs down from the top shelf before Tohru could hurt herself stretching for them. "You should think about an obstetrician." He said.

His wife blinked and accepted the two mugs from him, her face slowly forming into a stubborn expression. No one really understood just how hard-headed Tohru could be. She was as naturally sweet and even-tempered as she had been in high school, but after eight or so years of dealing with the Sohmas, she had developed a single-minded determination to make everyone happy. It was in that vein that she responded, "Wouldn't Hatori-san be offended? You've always trusted him before."

"I know." Yuki said and picked up the pencil again. What had he been expecting, some sort of tirade? This was Tohru, not Uo. He did trust Hatori, and there was no doubting that Hatori was an excellent physician. But still, as he watched his wife pour out their tea to steep, the DNA Yuki shared with Ayame itched. He could say it as the principle of the thing, but as much as it felt noble, it felt incredibly stupid. Hatori was a professional.

She brought the mugs to the table and sat down across from him, crossing her ankles underneath the table. As lucky as he felt waking up next to her, to have her sole attention in the morning felt just as wonderful. When they had lived in Shigure's house, she had always been a whirlwind in the morning. Between breakfast and homework and making sure Kyo didn't smash one of the more integral structural supports of the house, there was barely a moment for Yuki to greet Tohru good morning. There was a reason he never really learned how to tie his uniform's tie properly. Now he had the entire morning with her to sit and hold her hand, feel the wedding band on her finger, and remember that he had put it there. He said, "But I never entrusted him with my wife and child before."

It felt strange to say it: _my wife and child_. They'd been married almost eight months; he'd even filed taxes jointly. But between his only friends being the ones he shared with Tohru and all of them having been present at the wedding, he had never really had to say it out loud before: _my wife_. And now the _my child_ part. He lifted his mug of tea to his lips.

Tohru frowned now, the stubbornness giving way to confusion. "I don't see what the difference is." She said, locking her eyes on his. "Hatori-san is our friend and our family. You trusted him with everyone else close to us, including you."

"This is different because…" Yuki coughed, his cheeks burning like the steam from his mug was curling around his face. A husband shouldn't blush at such a thing, especially when he had succeeded in impregnating his wife. He closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to see the reaction on her face and exhaled, "…because it means Hatori would be staring at your-…_you_ for hours on end, and I'd have to let him."

There was silence from Tohru's side of the table. Yuki opened his eyes, the tips of his ears now going pink. Somewhere, in the distance, the ex-rat was sure, Shigure was laughing hysterically. His wife's expression was frozen in shock, either from the realization that she had been proposing such a thing or that Yuki would think in such a perverse manner. Yuki added hastily, "Besides, if something were to go wrong, Hatori would be involved in it. The last thing the Sohmas need is more resentment between family members."

Tohru looked down at the table, her face withering from shock to sadness. He hated to say it, but with this, it was something they would have to face. It was so early on, and from all the other library books he had read once Tohru had gone to sleep, an early stage in pregnancy was a precarious position. All pregnancy was precarious. Winston Churchill's mother had given birth to her son prematurely after tripping backwards over a log. The man set down his mug of tea and reached for his wife's hand again. He said softly, "I love you more than anything. I want everything to be perfect. It's your choice whom we go to, but please, see an obstetrician."

She nodded in agreement, smiled a paper-thin smile, and reached across for the pencil. She clumsily made a check next to the first and only thing on Yuki's list on the notepad and cleared her throat. "Next?" She asked.

"Next," Yuki said, and then stood up from his chair to lean over the table and kiss her. It was always like the first time they had kissed. It didn't matter if it was bleak outside or dark – kissing Tohru filled him with the same buoyant warm that her smile did. She smiled that luminous smile when their lips parted. She chided, "Your tea will get cold."

He brushed a piece of her hair behind her ear and whispered, "I love you more than anything."

**The thing about Winston Churchill is true. Beware of logs. I was going to write this as a one-shot, but then I realized I was going to be breaking it down by steps and it would therefore be a one-shot with chapters. And then I thought, screw it, and went back to my old format. Now to see how long it takes for me to update! Taking all bets…**

**Please review! I don't hold my fic hostage like some would, but seriously, reviews remind me I have a duty to do. The more you review, the more I prioritize my fic over my boyfriend. It's okay. He's a writer. He'll understand.**


	2. Step Two

**Alright, here we go again. How's the cold treating you? And for my southern hemisphere readers – I know you're out there – how's the heat treating you? Good, good. **

**I do not own Fruits Basket.**

**Step By Step**

**Step Two: Staying Away from the No-Nos.**

He was hoping that maybe she wouldn't notice. But Tohru had cleaned houses and offices alike for too long not to notice that food in their apartment had simply started to go missing. It wasn't that Yuki didn't trust Tohru to only do what was best for the baby, but rather that he didn't trust himself. He wasn't a particularly scrupulous person, and Tohru still had a tendency to let her mind drift. If they fell back into their pre-baby pattern, there could be disastrous results. He felt a wrench in his gut as he took the jar of instant coffee to work to stash in his desk, but it had to be done.

It was because he wasn't particularly scrupulous that one day his wife sat down next to him on the couch and said, "That swordfish was expensive, Yuki."

Yuki resisted the urge to cringe. Just as the stupid cat had forewarned, Tohru's moods had gotten more severe. Not unpleasant, necessarily, just razor-edged. She could plummet from happiness to despair before she even finished her sentence. He had yet to try her new personality's anger. It seemed like he would be learning more about it now – intimately. He set aside his book and said, "Swordfish has high levels of mercury in it."

"I was going to cook it for Christmas dinner, when the Sohmas came over."

He looked at her blankly, feeling his mind shift gears. Which Sohmas? God, if it was Shigure and Ayame and Tohru made eggnog…Only their eggnog couldn't have alcohol in it now. The baby. His mind shifted up again and said, "I didn't throw it away. I gave it to Arisa-san for you. She asked me to thank you."

Tohru lifted her hands up in a helpless gesture and let them drop back into her lap. When they were teenagers, she would wait until she was alone before she allowed herself to cry. At first her emotion had offended Yuki. She cried because she pitied him and his cursed cousins. It was just another shallow reaction to his circumstances, as heartfelt as the confessions of love he received at school simply because he was good-looking. But then, as he came to love Tohru, Yuki admired and even envied her emotions. They both knew that she had lowered Yuki's barriers. It had taken until the moment that he pulled her to his chest and held her as she cried for joy, the pregnancy test crushed between them in her hand, that the ex-rat realized that he had lowered her barriers as well. She didn't hide from him when she cried anymore. But she did look away.

Now he reached to take her hand as her eyes watered. She slipped her hands off of her lap to avoid his. Yuki took her hand anyway and said softly, "I'm not very good at this yet."

Tohru hiccupped, her hand squeezing his involuntarily. She met her husband's eyes and said, "I don't understand why I can't cook for you anymore. You got rid of the coffee and the _sake_ and most of the fish I had. I know there are things I'm not supposed to eat or drink, but you could have asked me before you started changing things."

He smiled weakly. "Like I said, I'm not very good at this yet."

She hiccupped again and moved closer to him on the couch, cushioning her head on his shoulder like she used to on the roof, her breath making his shoulder burn. "I know you're just trying to protect me," she said into his sleeve, "but I'm not going to forget that I'm pregnant."

"I know you're not. I'm worried that I might forget."

He sighed and leaned his head on top of hers, squeezing her hand now. "I see you have morning sickness every day, but it's so surreal. I keep thinking about the odds from the library books, about how phenomenal it is to conceive a child given how so many variables have to be aligned."

He swallowed and continued, "But other than the morning sickness, the library books, and the pregnancy test, I don't have any evidence. You can feel the baby inside you, but all I have to reassure me is watching you for signs. I'm going to be a father, but it isn't quite real yet. And I want it to happen."

Tohru had straightened out as he spoke, tilting her face so that she could see his countenance as he spoke. Almost wryly, she said, "You want everything to be perfect."

"It's the only thing I can do to help."

She shook her head and laid her head back on his shoulder. Now she squeezed his hand. "All you have to do is stay here with me. Doing things without telling me won't help because I won't know why you're doing them."

Yuki sighed again, deciding that contending with that point was a futile battle. He pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. He had always been perceived as fairly serene and unflappable. In fact, he had made it a goal in high school to appear unaffected by the minor ridicules and absurdities his classmates had inflicted upon him. But as tranquil as he could be when on his knees in good soil, he found that his patience was running thin. He groaned, "I wish nine months wasn't so long."

That made the brunette laugh, though it wasn't the full-throated laugh that Yuki swore could make flowers bloom. "I can't make it go any faster." She said, straightening out again, this time to kiss his cheek. He looked at her, searching for that luminous, life-giving smile. It didn't come. Instead, Tohru unfolded herself from his side, let go of his hand, and stood.

"What else is on the list of no-nos?"

"A lot. Everything."

Tohru laughed again and turned toward the kitchen. Her hair spun out behind her, reminding Yuki of the days when he would spend hours downstairs in the kitchen, watching her cook and move. Idly, as he got up to join his wife in the kitchen, he decided that he hoped their child had Tohru's hair. After growing up among the zodiac, where unusual hair colors and styles were par for the course, brown hair seemed almost exotic to him. As he sat down at the table with the brunette to write out yet another list to add to his growing collection – this time what not to eat or drink – he realized that there was almost nothing of himself that he wanted his child to have, other than the same depth of love for Tohru. She was so vibrant to him that it seemed almost unreasonable that his quirkier traits would come through in their child. He set aside his pencil and turned in his seat so he faced his wife. She had been reading things aloud from one of the library books to put on the list, but her voice petered away as he turned to her and kissed her cheek.

"I love you more than anything." He said.

She blushed and replied, "I know."

**Sorry that it's shorter than usual. I wrote this all in one sitting, and to be honest, something about it felt off. I suppose it's hard for me to write conflict between Tohru and Yuki and fluff – and clearly this bit was de-fluffed like a sheared sheep. I promise future chapters will be less worrisome. **

**Please review! **


	3. Step Three

**One thing to explain about medicine in Japan. The Japanese are, in general, far less likely to go see a doctor than an American for minor illnesses and injuries. They're not suspicious of medicine, but doctors are expensive and most sickness can be taken care of with over-the-counter drugs and home/herbal remedies. They also do not necessarily have yearly physicals after graduating from high school. As a result, they are far less comfortable in a medical environment and only see a doctor when poor health is an immediate danger. Doctors are often referred to using the "-sama" suffix to show appreciation for their skill.**

**I'm not an expert, but I had to do some research on international attitude toward preventative medicine when I was in high school, so I'm relying on my impressions from that research. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Fruits Basket. I do own the obstetrician.**

**Step By Step**

**Step Three: Getting Tested**

After a while, Yuki had become convinced that there was nothing material that would make Tohru recoil. He had seen her embrace monsters and open her heart without hesitation. He had seen her iron will to make others happy. It was certainly more than the ex-rat could say he would do. Then again, rats were cowards. They would abandon ship before the sinking even began.

What he did not know was that Tohru _despised_ needles. He had sat next to her in the obstetrician's waiting room with his hand on her knee, registering ever tremor that went through the brunette's body with a tightening in his jaw. At first Yuki had attributed it to nerves and nothing more; this stranger they were about to meet would become an intimate acquaintance like no other. Having convinced Tohru that using Hatori's services would be a bad idea, it was entirely Yuki's responsibility if the replacement candidate was somehow deeply inappropriate for the job of delivering their child into the world. An image of his older brother – soon to be an uncle, though Yuki somehow hoped he could hide this fact as long as possible – came into the ex-rat's mind, and he willed it away with a shake of his head.

It wasn't until the two of them had been led into an examination room, complete with the stirrups that Yuki had seen in the books from the library, that his wife clutched his arm in earnest and said, "Yuki, what was the name of that procedure?"

He put his hand on top of hers on his forearm. She was shivering. "Which one?" He asked.

"The one with the needle."

Yuki blinked and then let his head tilt back, looking up at the ceiling tiles as if the relevant pages from the books were taped there. They weren't. He hazarded, "It started with an A. Analgesic?"

Tohru shook her head and almost moaned, "It sounded like anonymous."

He pried one of her hands off of his arm to weave their fingers together. She turned her body toward his as if she could hide behind him. Yuki could see her shoulders shaking. He squeezed her hand and said softly, "Nothing bad is going to happen."

Tohru inhaled slowly and then replied, "That's what Mom said when we went to see Father in the hospital."

Yuki squeezed her hand again and leaned his head against hers.

The door to the examination room opened, and a woman entered with a smile on her face. Tohru immediately sat up straight and let go of Yuki. She had always been hesitant to show affection in front of strangers – it was so easy to offend someone, she said. Yuki was of the opinion that discretion was proper, but it was perfectly acceptable for a husband to hold his wife's hand in public. It was an innocent gesture. Children held hands.

The woman sat down on the rolling stool that had been waiting at the foot of the examining table and spun to face the couple. Her smile was genuine as she said, "I'm Dr. Ueno Aiko. This is your first child, isn't it?"

Tohru blushed and shifted in her set so that she was no longer angled toward her husband. She rested her hands in fists on her thighs as she bowed her head and answered, "Y-…Yes. I am Sohma Tohru and this is my husband, Sohma Yuki."

She gestured to Yuki, who stood and bowed at his name, managing to hesitate as his wife had before adding, "It's nice to meet you, Ueno-sama."

The doctor waved her hand at the formality and motioned for the man to sit. The tilt of her smile indicated that she was perfectly accustomed to the awkwardness that came with expecting fathers. She looked down at the clipboard in her hands and lifted a few pages, reading their paperwork for a moment before saying, "Well, Sohma-san, it looks like you've already done what I would advise. You don't smoke, and neither does your husband. That's very good."

She continued in this vein, listing out some of the other no-nos and smiling approvingly at every confirmation that each had been avoided. Finally, after ten minutes or so of such conversation, the doctor asked, "Do the two of you have any questions for me?"

Tohru flushed again and raised her hand. The doctor laughed and said, "You don't need to raise your hand, Sohma-san." Which only made Tohru's flush spread from her face to the back of her neck. She lowered her hand and said timidly, "When do I need to have the procedure with the needle done?"

The doctor frowned in confusion. "Do you mean an amniocentesis?" She asked.

Both Yuki and Tohru's faces lit up as the doctor said the word they had been hunting. "Yes, the amniocentesis!" Tohru exclaimed, clapping her hands together in delight before the meaning of the word reached her, making her wilt in her chair.

She continued in a much softer voice, "I apologize for the inconvenience, but is there any other way to test me without using a needle?"

The doctor raised an eyebrow and asked, "Are you afraid of needles, Sohma-san?"

Tohru nodded, and Yuki wanted to smack his forehead. Of course she was afraid of needles. Everybody was afraid of needles. The only reason it had never occurred to the ex-rat that his wife would be nervous about a giant needle being inserted into her stomach was his childhood frailty and his subsequent overexposure to needles. It had always been the same pediatrician that administered his shots and performed tests when he was little, and then it had been Hatori. After gasping for air for so long, the sight of a needle was a welcome relief. It meant things were going to get better, that he was saved. Now he reached for Tohru's hand and it took it, looking from his wife's red face, paler than usual behind the flush, to the doctor. Ueno said slowly, "Well, I would perform an amniocentesis between 15 and 20 weeks, but I'm not sure testing is necessary for you, Sohma-san. Your family has no history of genetic defects."

Yuki swallowed, his eyes dropping back to Tohru. He cleared his throat and said, hating himself, "My family has a history of genetic defects."

The brunette met his gaze questioningly, and he tried to apologize to her with his eyes alone as he continued, "I was born with a poor respiratory system, and there is a history of…mental troubles in my family."

At that moment he would have given anything to not be a Sohma. The doctor consulted the paperwork again and replied, "If you're truly concerned, Sohma-san, I could perform the amniocentesis today. You're at 15 weeks. The test would also determine the sex of the fetus."

Her voice eased from professionalism to sympathy. "I've performed this procedure nearly every day I come to work, Tohru-kun. I know it's scary, but I promise it won't be as bad as you think."

The brunette had lowered her head again, looking down at her abdomen as if she had to consult the baby's opinion as well in the matter. In the past week her stomach had started to protrude, the bowl of her hip bones cradling the new shape. It was scary and a relief at the same time to Yuki. It meant he could tell that it was really happening, that he was really a father. It also meant that he would really feel it if something went wrong. Tohru's hand gripped tigher with his, and she raised her head. "We should do it." She said.

Ueno nodded and stood. "I'll be right back with the equipment." She said, "If you wouldn't mind changing into the dressing gown, Sohma-san." And closed the door behind her.

The couple sat next to each other in silence for a moment. Then, her voice barely above a whisper, Tohru said, "Yuki, I don't want to know what gender the baby will be."

The ex-rat nodded, willing to agree to anything to atone for his part in the reason for the amniocentesis. He had always protected Tohru, and now he was the reason behind the thing that was causing her pain and fear. He wanted to stroke her hair and rub her back like he did in the mornings next to her in the bathroom as she vomited. As it was, all he could do was hold her hand and lift her to her feet, coaxing her to change. Still quiet, the brunette rose and reluctantly let go of Yuki's hand so she could change. Ever considerate, the young man turned away from his wife and looked down at his shoes, listening to the sound of fabric whispering. He swallowed again and said, "I love you more than anything."

There was a pause, and then two pale arms wrapped around him as Tohru hugged him from behind, her cheek between his shoulder blades. "I love you too." She said, leaning on him.

He could feel the unfamiliar curve of her stomach pressing into his back. He smiled.

**This is slightly more fluffy than the last one, but I can't help but feel that I'm not fulfilling the rainbows and cotton candy quota to truly call this fic "fluffy." Oh well. Try, try, try again!**

**Please review! I may be updating regularly for the first time in my fanfiction career, but there's no guarantee that'll last. Reviewing lets me know if I'm doing this right and reminds me to keep writing. Happy change of seasons!**


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